PPP, PDI urged to accept offer on vote trading

JAKARTA (JP): The government continued its bid yesterday to increase the number of Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) seats in the House of Representatives, suggesting that the credibility of the country's political system would otherwise suffer.

Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said yesterday the PDI and the United Development Party (PPP) should put national interests before their own and retract their earlier refusals to allow vote trading among the parties.

"Increasing the PDI's number of seats in the House is needed to sustain the country's political process," Moerdiono told reporters.

He stressed that a consensus should be reached among the parties before the winning party, Golkar, could grant its excess votes to the PDI so that it could get more seats.

Moerdiono conceded that electoral law did not cover post- election vote-trading agreements.

The proposal to increase the PDI's number of seats came from Golkar's chairman, Harmoko. Provisional results of the May 29 election show that Golkar has won 325 seats in the House, PPP 89 and PDI 10 after the calculation of 115 million ballots.

With ballot counting almost at an end, it seems unlikely that the PDI can obtain additional seats to meet the minimum requirement for representation in the House.

The House's internal regulations imply that a party must have at least 13 legislators to have at least one representative in the House's leadership, a party leader and a representative in each of the House's 11 commissions.

The PPP and PDI have rejected the proposed vote tradeoff.

Moerdiono said Golkar's offer of seats should not be considered as a "token of pity" for the PDI's poor election results.

The offer of additional seats was not meant to ensure the entry of PDI chairman Soerjadi and deputy chairwoman Fatimah Achmad, he said.

Political observers said earlier that granting votes for additional seats would put the two PDI officials in the House for the next five-year term.

Moerdiono dismissed yesterday allegations that the government had rigged the vote grant offer.

"We do not play around with democracy. We are serious in upholding democratization in the country," he said.

The PPP reiterated yesterday its opposition to Harmoko's proposal to grant Golkar's excess votes to PDI.

"We decided in a meeting (Wednesday) that post-election vote grants are unacceptable," PPP secretary-general Tosari Wijaya said yesterday.

He said Golkar must bear the responsibility if the public claimed that any vote grant was legally unacceptable.

"We call on the Supreme Court and the Attorney General to remind the government and Golkar that the plan is unlawful," he said.

He suggested that the House revise its internal regulations so that vote grants were unnecessary. The House should, for instance, reduce the number of its commissions to ten.

Golkar leader in the House Moestahid Astari said Tosari's suggestion was worth considering.

The National Commission on Human Rights has said that vote grants violate voters' basic rights.

"Transferring Golkar's and PPP's votes to PDI without voters' consent is unlawful," commission member Marzuki Darusman said yesterday. (imn/amd)